Free Republic

Amidst the hustle and bustle of the “lame duck” Congress, another law was passed that didn’t quite get the same media coverage as the Bush tax extension “package,” the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and the new START treaty. The Food Safety Modernization Act was not steeped in the same level of popular controversy as these other pieces of legislation. Nevertheless, its passage may affect our daily lives even more than these, and in a rather stealth manner. Yes, the week before Christmas, the 111th Congress of the United States gave Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services...

t is getting hard to keep track. One minute the government tells us American children are suffering from record levels of obesity. The next, children are facing a hunger epidemic. Which horror story should you believe? Neither. The truth is, 94.3 percent of American households are able to put enough food on the table every day to feed their families, and the vast majority of children living in these households are healthy and well-fed. Given the food shortages facing people in other countries, Americans are the envy of the world. According to the United Nations, 98 percent of undernourished people...

Environmentalism: Fresno, Calif., stands as the de facto capital of California's mighty Central Valley, the breadbasket of America. So why is that city preoccupied with winning a $1 million prize to stave off hunger? Local newspapers and Fresno County officials are trying to rally Facebook users to vote for Fresno in a corporate contest sponsored by Wal-Mart for $1 million in charity food donations for the hungry. Fresno, a city of 505,000, has taken the national lead because 24.1% of Fresno's families are going hungry. Civic spirit is good, but something big is wrong here. Fresno is the agricultural capital...

An average of 17.7 percent of all Americans were at times unable to feed themselves in the 12 months prior to September of this year. That's according to an analysis of data from the Gallup-Healthways Index, conducted and newly released by the Food Resource and Action Center (FRAC), an advocacy group. You may be wondering: In what universe does a 17.7 percent hunger rate qualify as good news? In this one, actually. That figure, after all, represents a slight drop from the average 18.5 percent rate recorded at the end of 2009. But even the smaller figure is hardly reassuring,...

This Thanksgiving I’m grateful to be living in Washington.It’s a fascinating city, a place filled with contrasts. The earnest and the devious meet here. The powerful walk the same halls as swarms of wannabees. However, the District of Columbia is also one of the clearest examples in the nation of massive inequality. While my family has been happy here, as we approach the holidays many of our neighbors are making do with far fewer resources. At least in my family, now is the time to think about our blessings and focus on how to help our neighbors. With the upcoming...

WASHINGTON, Nov 15 (Reuters) - The number of U.S. households that reported getting emergency food from a food pantry almost doubled between 2007 and 2009, at the height of the recession, a government report said on Monday. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said the number of households jumped to 5.6 from 3.9 million. "Households also accessed additional assistance through USDA's 15 food and nutrition assistance programs," the article in the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) "Amber Waves" said. The USDA oversees the government's food stamp program, also known as SNAP or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, for low-income families and...

"The theme of this year's World Food Day, 'United against Hunger'", writes the Pope in his English-language Message, "is a timely reminder that everyone needs to make a commitment to give the agricultural sector its proper importance. Everyone - from individuals to the organisations of civil society, States and international institutions - needs to give priority to one of the most urgent goals for the human family: freedom from hunger."

US President Barack Obama said many things at the just-ended UN Millennium Development Goals Summit in New York. The ones that stuck were his comments that food aid is not development. It’s “dependence,” he said, adding that America’s new approach will be to empower communities to meet their own food needs, rather than receiving handouts for their lunch and dinner. As the late founding president of Tanzania Julius Nyerere said after the North-South Cancun Summit in Mexico in 1981, it takes someone who has no worries about his next meal — like Obama — to talk sensibly about food. A...

Given the increased importance of biofuels and the new linkages between agricultural and energy markets, increased cereal yields, if achieved, may not necessarily continue to lead to lower cereal prices. Because the world energy market is so much larger than the world grain market, grain prices may be determined by oil prices in the energy market as opposed to being determined by grain supply.Thus, higher priced energy means more hungry people. Yes, it really is that simple. But not so simple, unfortunately, that people like celebrity lion-impersonator Jeremy Irons can understand it. Up above, you’ll see a video he made...

CARACAS, VENEZUELA (BNO NEWS) – A Venezuelan farmer died on Monday after 8 hunger strikes and six years of protest against President Hugo Chavez and his government’s land policies, Globovision Television reported on Tuesday. Franklin Brito, 49, died at the Military Hospital in Caracas, Venezuela, where he had been secluded against his will for four months. Ten days ago, Brito’s body began to collapse and on late Monday he passed away. Brito began his fight against the Chavez’ administration six years ago. During this period he endured eight hunger strikes, a mutilated finger and being victim of an irregular captivity....

Franklin Brito, agricultural producer of 49 years of age, that maintained successive hunger strikes in protest against the Venezuelan Government, passed away at night of this Monday, according to local means of press that mention familiar sources. The newspaper the Universal one informed in its digital edition of which the wife of Franklin Brito, Elena, declared to the metropolitan newspaper that his husband died around the 21,00 local time of Monday (01,30 GMT of Tuesday).

WASHINGTON (Aug. 23) -- Acknowledging that the hunger faced by millions of American students during the summertime is "a catastrophe," the top nutrition official at the U.S. Department of Agriculture wants to experiment with a totally new approach to feeding poor kids during the months they have no access to subsidized meals at school cafeterias. The idea: issue a seasonal electronic benefits card to families whose children are eligible for free or reduced-price school lunches during the academic year. In an interview with AOL News, Undersecretary for Food and Nutrition Kevin Concannon said the department has recently asked states to...

Illegal immigrants end hunger strike after one gets illFROM STAFF REPORTS Modified Tue, Jun 29, 2010 03:17 PM RALEIGH -- Citing safety reasons, three young women who are in the country illegally announced Monday that they're ending the hunger strike they started in downtown Raleigh two weeks ago. The women had started the hunger strike June 14 in an unsuccessful attempt to persuade U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, a Democrat, to back a bill that would allow illegal immigrants like them who were brought to this country as children a chance to be permanent residents. They said they're ending the strike...

by Nancy Matthis at American DaughterThe toxic chemical dispersant Corexit 9500 was pumped into the Gulf to counter the oil spill. Now it appears to have gassified, entered the atmosphere, and rained down on inland farmers, damaging crops and killing songbirds: One month ago, on May 24, The European Union Times wrote about a report prepared by Russia's Ministry of Natural Resources for President Medvedev -- Toxic Oil Spill Rains Warned Could Destroy North America: A dire report prepared for President Medvedev by Russia's Ministry of Natural Resources is warning ... that the British Petroleum (BP) oil and gas leak...

The global nanny state wants to take another bite out of your freedom. Its new target – your dinner plate. The Guardian reported on June 2 that the UN was supporting a switch to a radical anti-meat agenda. “A global shift towards a vegan diet is vital to save the world from hunger, fuel poverty and the worst impacts of climate change, a UN report said today,” wrote the paper. Here’s how the group Vegan Action describes this extreme vegetarianism. “While vegetarians choose not to use flesh foods, vegans also avoid dairy and eggs, as well as fur, leather, wool,...

FRONT ROYAL, Virginia, May 3, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Population Research Institute (PRI) has just released the third video in its YouTube cartoon series, designed to refute the idea of overpopulation with science — and stick figures. Contrary to claims advanced by population control advocates, the latest video reveals data indicating that world hunger is not caused by a lack of food, but by wars, lack of transportation, and economic factors. To date the series has garnered well over 200,000 views on YouTube, and has made PRI one of the more popular non-profit channels on the video channel.

The most enduring images of the Great Depression from 1929 through to the beginning of World War II for America in 1941 were those of homeless people, hobo camps, and of soup kitchens to feed the hungry. During the Reagan years, the media was filled with stories of the homeless as if to refute any improvement in the economy under a conservative president. These days, however, as America's national debt and deficit continues to spiral out of control, the poor and the hungry remain largely unseen and, most significantly, largely unreported. About the only thing one can find on the...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Despite good intentions, the push to privatize government functions and insistence upon "free trade" that is too often unfair has caused declining food production, increased poverty and a hunger crisis for millions of people in many African nations, researchers conclude in a new study. Market reforms that began in the mid-1980s and were supposed to aid economic growth have actually backfired in some of the poorest nations in the world, and just in recent years led to multiple food riots, scientists report today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a professional journal. "Many of these...

North Korea's food shortage is expected to further worsen this year, as the communist state's grain output in 2009 is believed to have fallen from the previous year, a government official in Seoul said Wednesday. The North is estimated to have produced 4.1 million tons of grain last year, a drop of about 200,000 tons compared to 2008, the Unification Ministry official said on condition of anonymity. The amount falls about 1.3 million tons short of what the impoverished country needs this year to feed its 24 million people, the official said. The North produced 4.3 million tons in 2008....

The U.N.'s controversial climate report is coming under fire -- again -- this time by one of its own scientists, who admits he can't find any evidence to support a warning about a climate-caused North African food shortage. The statement comes from a key 2007 report to the U.N., and asserts that by 2020 yields from rain-fed agriculture could be reduced by up to 50% in some African countries thanks to climate change. But this weekend, a key author of the team behind that report told The Sunday Times that he could find no evidence to support his own group's...